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[JAZZ_LEG3ND]

Spoiler warning… that was your warning.

Bioware, this is from me to you. I love you guys to bits, but not expressing my disappointments would be a disservice, so here goes.

Hawke, the protagonist of Dragon Age II, Champion of Kirkwall, and one of my favourite characters from the franchise, has been reduced to an agonizingly anticlimactic cameo, which depending on the player’s choice, may actually be the end of the Champion’s story outright. No. Let me say that again. No.

Anticipation and disappointment are unfortunately easily interchanged, and here they have been swapped, big time. I’ve had the game (Inquisition) finished for a while now (on my next character, of course), so I’ve been sitting with this for a bit, gave it time to settle, thus I can attempt to illustrate my problem with the whole thing as clearly and level-headed as possible.

First, Dragon Age II. I loved that game, despite its flaws. Hawke’s ten year journey in Kirkwall, her relationships, her trials, her battles, victories, and losses, these are things I’ll take with me forever. The anticipation I felt at the game’s finale was impressively large. But now, natural expectations are literally perpetual disappointment. Hawke meeting Cassandra? I’ll never see that. Where did Hawke go? Why didn’t Varric know? Apparently nowhere, and apparently he did.

The ten year gauntlet Hawke experienced in Kirkwall were the foundations of a legend. Early on in the game Flemeth foreshadows events that never actually took place within the DA2 timeline. Defeating the Arishock, discovering Red Lyrium, and taking down a possessed First Enchanter, and Knight Commander were just layers. It was a brilliant setup, the follow-through I wanted to see so badly. But now? Whole thing feels wasted. Hawke is the A-list celebrity cameo, eclipsing everyone when she’s on screen, but is only there for the sake of appearance. And later stuffed into a Kaiden or Ashley dilemma, amounting to little more than a “did you or did you not like DA2” quiz.

Dragon Age II made me care about Hawke a lot, as I said, I loved that story. But this has become Game of Thrones: you like that character? Good, watch them die. Or more accurately: watch them get swept aside and become meaningless, then die… maybe. The vagueness makes it worse.

Some of my feelings on the matter are no doubt results of how minimalist the core quest-line becomes in the later part of Inquisition. There’s a bit to be desired in terms of raw plot progression; the fundamental negative beat right before the final victory is missing entirely, but that’s really another discussion. This is about Hawke, and how her story got severed at the neck and left to rot.

I don’t know how to fix this problem, or even if it can be. What’s done is done. But Hawke will always be my Champion. Damn you for making me care.